2001 and counting... A Public Health Odyssey c/o Rabbi Julia Neuberger

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic -------------------------------------------  mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group-population

Changes in the way that health professionals are being trained should help future doctors, nurses and others to think more holistically and to share more knowledge. p.77-78.

If a genuinely holistic approach is being taken, it is probable that several activities will be happening simultaneously to tackle any given problem, and that more than one measure of success would be appropriate. Collecting evidence to prove what works and what does not may also take a varied approach that mixes different methodologies and creates some new ones. p.77.

The growing understanding that health should be seen holistically - as being more about general wellbeing than the absence of disease - has not yet been equipped with evidence that policymakers and practitioners can respect. Throughout the history of the NHS, there has been a tension between the imperative to treat disease in the individual and the need to promote general good health in the population. p.77.

Tackling health inequalities has become a cornerstone* of British government policy. From the corridors of Whitehall to the local board meetings of primary care groups and trusts, the imperative to reduce the health gap between rich and poor is ubiquitous. Yet when action is proposed to turn the rhetoric into reality, particularly when significant investments are required, the cry of "not enough evidence" is invariably heard in opposition. p.77.

*Whatever the state of current Government policy, tackling health inequalities has been a 'cornerstone' within Hodges' model since the model was created in the 1980s. It remains so today in 2017.

Rabbi Julia Neuberger. Where's the Evidence? Making the Case for Public Health.
Source: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (1979-), Vol. 55, No. 2 (Feb., 2001), pp.
77-78.
Published by: BMJ
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25569362